Farmers

European farmers act within a dense structure of regulations and continental markets, which forces them to incorporate “European thinking” into their daily practices. They have a long tradition of dealing with European legislation and lobbying for their political concerns and advantages in Brussels through their associations and political parties. In addition, they must take European environmental requirements into account, but quite often they are in conflict with environmentalist groups. A further rationale for including farmers is based on their heterogeneity in terms of their social characteristics, their values and identities. A starting point can be that the construction of biographies of farmers from the ‘old’ and the ‘new’ member states has different grounds and diverse development modes. Moreover, in contrast to other ‘sensitized groups’ who may be more mobile and faster to incorporate European identities, farmers could be defined as a more static group who are strongly affiliated with the nation due to their bonds to a certain territory and land.